Grass Valley SD/HD Production And Film Imaging Equipment Has Super Bowl XL Covered

Grass Valley technology and Thomson will be involved with virtually every aspect of this year?s NFL Super Bowl XL telecast
(January 31, 2006)

Continuing a long-standing tradition, virtually every aspect of this years NFL Super Bowl XL telecast on Sunday, February 5th on ABC Sports will be processed and manipulated by one or more type of Grass Valley technology and/or system from Thomson. This includes the live game SD/HD simulcast, the Half-time Show, the pre- and post game shows, and the highly anticipated commercials watched with anticipation by million throughout the world.

NEP Supershooters, based in Pittsburgh, Penn., will be onsite at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. to help cover the action of the nations highest-profile football game. The veteran mobile production company will produce the game with seven trucks that all feature Grass Valley digital production equipment. These trucks are relying on Grass Valley LDK 6000 mk II Worldcam HD cameras, XtenDD and Kalypso SD, HD and 4000 series SD switchers, as well as the Trinix and Concerto, and SMS 7000 Series routing switchers.

As for the TV commercials, New York-based commercial post house Nice Shoes will post a majority of the film-based commercials seen during this years Super Bowl, like it has for several years. The high-end facility will use three new Grass Valley Spirit 2K DataCine systems and three Specter 2K Virtual DataCine systems. The facility also owns a Grass Valley Viper FilmStream digital cinematography camera and two Grass Valley Bones Linux-based image restoration and post software packages.

Among the trucks, NEP will send its 53-foot long SS-26 to produce the actual game telecast, while its SS-18 and SS-20 will handle the pre- and post game shows. SS-26 carries 22 Grass Valley LDK 6000 mk II Worldcam HD cameras and base stations, as well as an XtenDD 35 switcher with 90 inputs. The truck is based around a Grass Valley Trinix 160x128 HD video router, a Trinix 256x256 SD router, and a Concerto Series 256x256 analog/AES audio router.